Necronoclast hailing from Scotland offers up a heaped helping of doom laden, dreary and bleak black metal. The band consisting solely of one Greg Edwards who handles guitar, vocals and drum programming all on his own merit. This latest release from Necronoclast aptly titled “The Plague” is wrapped in shady, atmospheric layers of loathing and disgust, the album cover featuring circling vultures hovering over an inanimate corpse below, creating a perfect centerpiece for the music found inside.

The guitars are often purposely disharmonic and dissonant yet well executed. I won’t say much about the drum programming other than it serves its purpose well and I wouldn’t have even known it was programmed had I not read the liner notes. The vocals are gargled and tortured, all the more so when soaked in effect and reverb. My personal favorite track would be “Enter The Opacity” for all its hopeless and spiteful droning. Riffs sustaining themselves in a perverse ambience.

Black metal fans who are sick of the repetitive blast beats, minor chords, campy shock value inducing song titles formula need look no further or search any longer. This album is for you. I look forward to hearing more from Necronoclast and would recommend this disc highly to fans of the black metal genre.